


Blue, Grey, and Everything In Between

by perpetual_danger



Series: Circuitry [1]
Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types, Watch Dogs (Video Games)
Genre: Bleeding Effect, Desmond Miles Lives, Desmond Miles Needs a Hug, Desmond Miles-centric, Eagle Vision (Assassin's Creed), Fluff, M/M, Multi, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:35:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23822413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perpetual_danger/pseuds/perpetual_danger
Summary: Desmond lives, somehow, and ends up on the west coast, right in the middle of a revolution.Knowledge of Watch Dogs isn't necessary to understand what's going on.
Relationships: Desmond Miles/ Marcus Holloway
Series: Circuitry [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1716433
Comments: 36
Kudos: 196





	Blue, Grey, and Everything In Between

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys!! I'm finally posting this au, which has been hanging around my mind for the past month. I absolutely adore this crossover, and I'm looking forward to expanding it in the future.
> 
> That being said, I hope you all enjoy, and comments are really appreciated!!

Desmond wakes up. He wakes up to shades of blue and grey, and he feels like he's back on Animus Island, or loading into a new memory, where time feels slowed down, and gravity doesn't pull at aching limbs. He's watching himself through third person, he's not watching Altaïr, Ezio, or Ratonhnhaké:ton, but they're superimposed on top of him. They are him, he realizes, he is them. He stretches his legs, running, just like he did in the Animus, and just like in the Animus, he never tires.

The world around him is blue and grey and pieces slide together like a glitching screen. If he looks too closely, he can see the lines of code that makes up this endless space. He swallows the lump in his throat and he (and Altair, Ezio, and Ratonhnhaké:ton) rubs his face to get rid of the tears that he never showed before his death. Rebecca would be able to make heads or tails of the endless numbers and letters. Now Desmond’s stuck here, and he’s desperately wishing that he listened to Rebecca’s ramblings while she coded the Animus, and Shaun’s lectures on Isu technology.

Desmond's voice doesn't echo here, it gets swallowed up like he's facing a vacuum of space, and perhaps that's exactly what this is. He died touching the Eye to protect the world from the sun, wouldn't it be fitting if he would be lost in space because of it? He wishes Shaun and Rebecca were here with him, but immediately regrets thinking that. It would be cruel to lock them away in such an empty and unforgivingly lonely place simply because he wanted company. Desmond was the one to save the earth, and this is his price to pay.

He activates Eagle Vision, and is pleasantly surprised when a line of code not too far glows gold. It’s gibberish, Desmond thinks, and the others agree with him. The others. When had it come to this? Probably when he held the Eye and hoped he wouldn’t be alone.

And here he was, alone, but for the ghosts residing in his mind.

The line of code makes no sense, but Desmond sees the word “closed” and reaches for it. The world flashes gold, Ezio shouts, and then there’s silence.

Desmond wakes up again, but this time there’s noise. A heart rate monitor, a murmur of voices, and the buzz of LED lights. He attempts to sit up, but he’s strangled by wires that cover every inch of him. _I should be dead_ , he thinks, and that’s the thing, isn’t it? He definitely should be dead. Minerva told him that he would die when he used the eye, a one time deal, yet here he was, untangling himself from the wires that catch on his limbs with an arm burnt black and painted with golden circuitry.

Ratonhnhaké:ton keeps watch at the doorway, while Ezio gently brushes Desmond's overgrown hair out of his eyes. An Abstergo logo is stamped on every piece of equipment in the room, and he feels sick to his stomach. It’s so selfish, but he just wants out. He wants to run away like he did when he was sixteen and never look back. Altaïr whispers calming words in Arabic, and it’s then that Desmond realizes he’s hyperventilating.

He curls around himself and weeps.

It’s Ratonhnhaké:ton that wakes him up, and lets the three of them know that it’s time to go. Abstergo employees are coming this way, and they all know that this is the only chance they have to get out of here. Getting out isn’t difficult, not with the skills and memories of three master assassins inside his head. They (He?) make good time, avoiding security and knocking out whoever he can’t avoid. He won’t kill them, He can’t. So many of the employees here don’t know what they’ve gotten themselves into. They make mediocre pay in a mega-corporation, they walk into Abstergo Industries and look at the triangle plastered everywhere, and see nothing but the five o'clock mark on their watch. He doesn’t feel so bad, though, as to not strip multiple people of various pieces of clothing.

For a minute he thinks about finding Shaun and Rebecca, but the first place the Templars would look for him would be with the Assassins, and if Desmond never has to deal with Assassin/ Templar politics, it would be too soon. He’ll fight the good fight, just not there. It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t miss them horribly, though. Desmond only knew the two of them for a short amount of time, but he’d like to think that they became rather close. Maybe once things calm down he’ll go and find them, but until then, he was getting the hell out of Dodge.

It isn’t hard to find cash, not when he’s in the center of a bustling New York City, and Eagle Vision is practically a cheat code for finding exactly what you need. By the end of the hour, Desmond’s amassed a pile of wallets that barely fit in the small backpack he nabbed, and Altair wryly points out that if someone decides to investigate the bag, it won’t be easy to explain. The other two Assassins agree. In a dark alleyway, Desmond sorts out the cash into one wallet and tosses the rest.

The four of them decide to head for the west coast. Abstergo has a large presence in Mexico, Canada is too close, despite Abstergo’s smaller presence, and cross-Atlantic travel is too risky, whether by air or by sea.

~

* * *

~

Three months later, he ends up in San Francisco, on the West Coast, far away from Abstergo's main base of operations in New York City. Desmond ends up catching a bartending gig in a pub, one not unlike Bad Weather, and people tend to _Talk_ in places like these. He catches wind of a technological revolution in San Fran, because he's Desmond Miles, and despite the way he avoids attention like the plague, he's the son of Assassins, haunted by the ghosts and memories of Assassins, and it's in their blood to find revolutions, and revolutions gain attention.

He isn't an assassin anymore, and Abstergo is still out for his blood (literally), but he's still an Assassin, capital "A". He has a duty to fight in these things, whether he likes it or not. Ezio quirks an eyebrow at him from across the pub where Desmond is currently cleaning glasses, and he mumbles an Arabic curse at him from under his breath. He knows that his ancestors (ghosts? Memories? Whatever.) won't let him sleep unless he helps solve what's tearing San Francisco apart. He won't let himself sleep.

He flicks a finger and the tv changes from a college basketball game to the news. He tries not to think about it too much, but something has been left over from his time in the Empty, from his time staring at lines of code, something that he believes might have been building since his time spent with Clay, so long ago. Just a quick thought, and technology bends to his whim. Again, he tries not to think about it. He tries not to think about a lot of things.

The news chatters on, local game, politics, then a car chase with a car from an up-coming movie. The newscaster says something about DedSec.

DedSec

DedSec

_He needs to find DedSec._

He turns to his watch and notes that he could have checked out 15 minutes past. He rapps his knuckles on the bar and throws a peace sign to the new kid cleaning a table in the corner and runs out the door.  He takes to the rooftops, the only place besides behind a bar he's ever felt comfortable.

He climbs to the top of the tallest building in the area, an ugly, cement, almost-skyscraper office building and looks down on the city through an Eagle’s eyes, where everything is bathed in dull greys and blues, but for a twisting golden track led by a car painted in gold, with hoards of red tinted police cars slowly being lost behind it. An eagle screes from above him, and he looks down, searching for a familiar dot of white (there's always one there, no matter how unlikely it may be). He takes the jump, air rushing around him, and he spins midair, safely landing on a collection of garbage bags filled with shredded paper.

He grabs a motorcycle from the side of the road and starts it with a glancing touch to the ignition, and he's off, following the golden path towards a new revolution.

_  
  
_

The golden car tracks lead him to a garage in a small alleyway, but by the time he gets there, a golden line made presumably by motorcycle wheels has already made its way back onto the main road from the door on the other side. Desmond does what his instincts tell him (Really, it's Connor inspecting the golden line and raising his chin in contemplation), and he follows the line down the main road.

_  
  
_

He climbs off his bike and walks into Gary's Games & Glory, and takes a second to take in the immense amount of tabletop games and guides lining the shelves. He figures he’ll take a look around on his way back out, he’d always wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons. He walks into the back room, taking note of the side-eyes he’s garnering from the customers and cashier.  They don’t trust him, and he’s willing to bet it’s not simply because he walked into the back storage room.

There’s a door shining in gold in the back left corner, with a small keypad next to it. Desmond reaches out to the door, and nothing happens. 

He tries again, this time, pretending to press some buttons on the lock, mindful of the person watching him from the doorway to the store. He blinks and dull bluish grey covers his sight, and the person is mostly grey with a slight tinge of red. Suspicious, then. The door opens with another touch to the lock, and he slides through into a narrow stairway painted colorfully and covered in stickers.

The door slides shut behind him with a quiet “thunk” and Desmond makes his way down the stairwell, and the sound of his footsteps make him eerily aware of the silence. Altaïr stands at the bottom, looking to his right, and Desmond knows he isn’t alone in the basement area, or whatever this place is. He considers using Eagle Vision, but throws the idea away, he doesn’t want to spook these people, and inhuman reflexes and instincts will definitely do that. He feels the comforting weight of Connor’s hidden blades on his forearms and he takes the final few steps into the open.

And is promptly bowled over by someone who has _definitely_ had training. No matter, he isn’t here to fight, but the horrible feeling of _**red**_ covers his senses and he has to fight against centuries of perfected instincts to not lash out at whoever has him pinned to the wall. He relaxes in the man’s hold, comfortable in the fact that if he was in danger, he would have no problem ending this as quickly as it began. He finally does activate Eagle Vision and counts three more people in the room, all but one holding some kind of weapon. The one without is standing in the back behind some kind of computer, and it's clear that the two others have placed themselves in front of him protectively.

Which brings him back to the bright, bright _**red**_ holding him pinned to the wall by an elbow to his neck. He raises his chin and sighs, “Relax, I’m not here to fight.”

“Then what in the fuck are you doing here then?” Desmond blinks a few times to get rid of the blinding _**red**_ and peaks his head out from behind the man holding him to the wall.

“Looking for DedSec, I suppose. I take it, I found you guys?” He raises an eyebrow at the woman holding a spray paint can in a way that surprisingly makes it look threatening.

A voice pipes up from the back of the room, and it’s the one who they were protective of. He flashes Eagle Vision to get a read on him, and blinks when he shows up a pale purple. Friendly, but suspicious, huh? Interesting. “How did you get in here?”

“Through the door, I believe.” The man’s elbow against his throat presses harder. “Okay, okay,” he wheezes, “I hacked it. I hacked it. It was solid work, and nobody else should be able to get in here, but I hacked it.

"Listen, it doesn’t matter. I’m good with electronics, I can fight, and I’m willing to join DedSec. Sounds good?” The man’s elbow releases itself from his neck and he breathes in fresh air and massages his throat. He then proceeds to grab Desmond’s hand and pull him in for a quick hug.

“Man, you hear that, Wrench? This dude can fight! Means you n’ Sitara have someone else to pull into your games.” The man turns back to him, smiling, and the world is blue, blue, blue, and Desmond falls a little bit in love.

  
~

* * *

~  
  


Desmond Miles is strange, Josh quickly decides. He walks with the grace of someone who knows how to fight, but never in his life has he seen someone fight quite like how Desmond fights. He sits in on some of Marcus and Desmond’s “fighting sessions” which are really Marcus getting beaten ruthlessly into the ground in mere seconds. It’s one man doing the fighting of three different people, Josh realizes. 

Two nights after they meet him, there’s an opportunity to see Desmond in action and they decide to send him into New Dawn’s temple instead of Marcus as they had originally planned. They give him instructions to get into the basement and look at the stone tablets, and the guy looks up the place on Google Earth, then hangs around the Hackerspace giving an eager Marcus fighting lessons until the sunlight starts to dim. Desmond shrugs, and takes the proffered Jumper drone and puts it carefully into his backpack, and hangs the earbuds Josh had given him around his neck, and leaves.

Josh loads up the video stream from the New Dawn Temple’s security camera, and waits. 

What he sees doesn’t surprise him. When he does see Desmond, it’s for a split second before he’s gone again, wearing the dark like a second skin. He knows he could have told Desmond that he didn’t have to be worried about the cameras, but he was curious about what the new guy could do. Despite how he never told him, Josh watches, curiosity peaked, as Desmond grows more comfortable in the view of the cameras, as if he knows who’s watching and who isn’t. Josh feels Sitara and Wrench staring over his shoulders at the computer screen, and hears Wrench huff out “Jesus fucking Christ! Wrist knives?!” when the guy gets particularly creative with a take-down. 

Josh flicks to another video stream, and even without audio, he knows that the approaching guards are silent. He doesn’t worry, though, and he switches to the next video, where he knows Desmond will appear (and so will the guards). He’s surprised though, when he sees Desmond already taking down the guards. He was right, he thinks to himself, Desmond does fight like three different people. He takes down one guard by flicking his wrist right in front of a woman’s neck, his blade going easily through her throat. In one fluid motion, he turns around, yanking the blade out, flips it into the palm of his hand, and sticks it into the gut of another, while simultaneously kicking the gun out of the grip of yet another guard. Josh watches, mesmerized, as Desmond pulls the trigger, but nothing happens, before throwing it powerfully into the head of a guard who had been running up from behind him. Behind his line of view. A man he couldn’t see and threw a gun that hit the man squarely in the head. He isn’t sure if he can even be surprised at this point.

He immediately takes that back when Desmond steps out of the ring of bloody and beaten bodies, walks up to the locked door of temple,  _ waves his hand _ , and the door  _ fucking opens _ . 

Marcus walks into the Hackerspace with a bowl of fresh popcorn, and Wrench runs over to grab him by the arm and drag him over to the computer “Holy fucking shit, Marcus. _Holy shit_. Your new battle buddy just killed like 15 guys in like. Holy shit. Thirty seconds, tops. Fuck. Who the fuck is this guy.” 

So, they didn’t see Desmond open the door, then. Well, he’ll just wait to bring it up with the man himself. 

The rest is easy. There’s no cameras inside the temple, so they jump on the voice chat, and Josh leans back so the other three can shout into the mic. Desmond brushes it all off as training, and maybe that’s what it is, but Josh really needs to have a conversation with this guy.

He gets into the basement and Desmond falls silent for a minute, then there’s a sound of something breaking and all four of them are yelling into the mic, asking if Desmond can read them, if he’s okay, what _happened, is everythi-_

“Relax, guys, I’m fine.” A breath of relief, “But New Dawn’s fucked.”

A photo pops up in their group chat, the Sumerian Tablets, broken apart on the floor, hollow. Sitara is the first to say anything.

“Holy shit.”

Yeah, Josh is thinking that, too.

~

* * *

_~_  
  


Marcus notices things about Desmond, things he’s not sure that the other’s notice, only if it’s because the other DedSec members act behind the scenes. He thinks to ask Josh, but Josh knows pretty much everything, and so asking him seems almost like cheating, so he does the next best thing, he watches Desmond. Desmond stares off into space sometimes, and he talks to himself under his breath. Marcus isn’t sure if Desmond knows he’s doing it, but it’s unsettling seeing a person’s eyes track something across the room and when you check, there's nothing there. 

Out on the field, the man’s a whiz. Holy shit. Marcus has never seen anyone hack as quickly as Desmond does, not even Josh. He’s in and out before the clock reaches the thirty minute mark, and sometimes even sooner. Marcus watches him, wants to learn everything he can, even though he’s too embarrassed to ask. When he looks closer, he realizes that he’s not always hacking, sometimes he just simply fiddles with something, and it begins to work in his favour. The guy’s a tech genius, Marcus concludes.

He goes into the field with Desmond sometimes, and even out on the field, he mumbles. Marcus hears him through the mic occasionally, and he’s not embarrassed to say that he has no fucking clue what he’s saying. He took Italian all throughout highschool, but he only recognises a few words here and there. It’s the grammar that tips him off. Marcus’ new field buddy speaks in _medieval fucking Italian_ , never mind whatever the fuck else he speaks.

Wrench is there to drop Desmond and Marcus off at the cell tower, and Wrench and Desmond bicker the whole way about the dumbest shit ever, and Marcus jumps in to tell them exactly that. Suddenly, he’s a part of the debate, and suddenly, they’re at the cell tower, and suddenly, Desmond is high-fiving Wrench and jumping out of the van. Marcus fist bumps Wrench and takes a second to admire Desmond scaling the side of the building, takes a second to admire how casually he stands, moves like molasses to cup his hands around his mouth. 

“Coming, Holloway?” Desmond disappears with a grin, and Marcus’ world is a white hoodie with dark-washed jeans, and he has never run after anything so willingly in his life.

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know if you guys enjoyed and if you want more from this au!! you can also message/ ask me abt it on my tumblr at https://www.tumblr.com/blog/buggposting
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, and comments are really appreciated, even if it's just to say that you enjoyed reading!!


End file.
